recruiting Gaesatae

[KARTLOS]

i am playing as the haysadan. I have been able to recruit Gaesatae as mercenaries in asia minor, but i was curious if i would ever be able to recruit the from a regional barracks? i control the "celtic" city in asia minor and i think i have maxed out the regional recruitment options, iirc the best i can get is celtic heavy cav.

so i was wondering if there was any province that would allow me to recruit Gaesatae as the haysadan?

[blank]

i am playing as the haysadan. I have been able to recruit Gaesatae as mercenaries in asia minor, but i was curious if i would ever be able to recruit the from a regional barracks? i control the "celtic" city in asia minor and i think i have maxed out the regional recruitment options, iirc the best i can get is celtic heavy cav.

so i was wondering if there was any province that would allow me to recruit Gaesatae as the haysadan?

If you can't get them in Ankyra then your faction probably can't recruit them from cities.
A recruitment expert could give you a more definitive answer though

[Tellos Athenaios]

IIRC: all factions that can recruit Tindotae, do so at Local MIC 5.

[KARTLOS]

which factions can?

[Ravenic]

I want to say Pontos and AS only.

[pezhetairoi]

Just a quick slightly related question, then: The Gaesatae were mercenaries too, so why is it they are not available in the Gallic mercenary pools? o.O

[Redmeth]

They'd be a bit too overpowering for the Romans to get them or the Sweboz, but it could work if they are in a few provinces, let's say Bibracte and Gergovia (capitals of the factions) and had very long replenishment times like 0.04 (5 years) or even longer and just one unit max of course.

[pezhetairoi]

Well, granted that that would be overpowering. But I suppose the capitals are far off the usual expansion paths of the Romani and the Sweboz anyway, so it would be alright to place them there. Watching the AI expansion threads, it seems that by the time the Romani or the Sweboz expand enough to get to either one of the Gallic capitals, they're usually so powerful by then and huge that I think one unit of gaesatae or two every 5-6 years would not really be that much of a balance-tipper either way. And if you're talking about us human players getting them, well, I think the AI uses mercs far more than us human players anyway, so any benefits made available accrue mainly to the AI in any case. Your views? :)

[Redmeth]

The problem with the merc usage of the AI is delicate, I tried to tackle it with mlp071 in our mini-mod but that file is crazy hard to mod correctly manually and it has quite a few implications on the challenge the AI poses and the faction progression.

The good news is that the team will make some changes to the merc system for the next build and if there will still be some room for improvement, I'm thinking about releasing 2 versions of the balancing mini-mod one for role-players and people who use house rules and take it slow and one for more competitive gamers so to speak.

But this will be after the next build will be released.
OT: Try mlp071's Darth Formations for EB on huge settings if you have the hardware muscle, the battles are harder and when the AI has a troop advantage you might be in for a beat-down. (It took me 3 tries to win a stack vs stack battle in my Epeiros campaign odds were 5:7)

[pezhetairoi]

ehh. aren't darth formations already in EB? O.o hmm, so far my SPQR has had its fair share of thrills and spills, but my main grouse is with the overwhelming amounts of lugoae located in each Gallic army which means I cut through them like hot butter.

...until I get to the armies with 4 gaesatae or 6 gastiz, that is. And THEN i cry. XD

[mlp071]

ehh. aren't darth formations already in EB?

Nope , Darth mode is not in EB by default. I believe it comes with vanilla RTW formations. Reason for that is that EB team (according to some posts) is planing of making their own formations for future releases.

[QwertyMIDX]

Just a quick slightly related question, then: The Gaesatae were mercenaries too, so why is it they are not available in the Gallic mercenary pools? o.O

Because the RTW definition of mercenaries and the one being used when the Gaesatae are mentioned are pretty different. In RTW a merc can be hired by absolutely anyone, in the ancient world there were plenty of mercs who were a bit more picky about their employers, the Gaesatae were one of these.

[Krusader]

Because the RTW definition of mercenaries and the one being used when the Gaesatae are mentioned are pretty different. In RTW a merc can be hired by absolutely anyone, in the ancient world there were plenty of mercs who were a bit more picky about their employers, the Gaesatae were one of these.

True.

The Tindanotae ("Galatian Gaesatae") though weren't that picky.

[Andronikos]

They'd be a bit too overpowering for the Romans to get them or the Sweboz, but it could work if they are in a few provinces, let's say Bibracte and Gergovia (capitals of the factions) and had very long replenishment times like 0.04 (5 years) or even longer and just one unit max of course.

This will be only for Romans and Sweboz or for Aedui, Arverni, Casse and Carthage too?

[Redmeth]

This will be only for Romans and Sweboz or for Aedui, Arverni, Casse and Carthage too?

As QwertyMIDX pointed out if a unit gets implemented as a mercenary unit than they would be available for any faction and if that was not the case for the Gaesatae then they will remain as factional/regional troops recruitable only by certain factions (the EDU says Aedui, Arvernii and Carthage only)

[Ludens]

Nope , Darth mode is not in EB by default. I believe it comes with vanilla RTW formations. Reason for that is that EB team (according to some posts) is planing of making their own formations for future releases.

Actually, they included their own historical formations already, they just aren't optimized like Darth's are.

[KARTLOS]

how much of a difference to the darth formations make, and if it is a big one why?

[Ludens]

how much of a difference to the darth formations make, and if it is a big one why?

They made a big difference in vanilla R:TW, but less so in EB. Still, Darth's battlefield A.I. organizes it's forces somewhat better and performs somewhat more creditably. I prefer Thorloff's adaptation of Sinuhet's formation files, though.

[mcantu]

They made a big difference in vanilla R:TW, but less so in EB. Still, Darth's battlefield A.I. organizes it's forces somewhat better and performs somewhat more creditably. I prefer Thorloff's adaptation of Sinuhet's formation files, though.

I also Like Sinuhet's formations better. I would really prefer to have his formations done specifically for EB rather than Thorloff's in which he but his own changes.

[Redmeth]

Using Thorlof's adaptation of Sinuhet's formation without the other files (IMO he changed a bit too much) gave me a case of battlefield CTDs so Darth's have been adapted to EB and I must say I'm very satisfied with how the AI does. I basically get beat bad on Hard and suffer quite a lot of casualties on Normal (as opposed to before) so now Heroic Victories are not such a common sight anymore.

[mlp071]

This is what happened to me with Darth's formations last night :




Ptolies broke thru my wings and surrounded me ,so i got pummeled big time
Armies were same quality.I wouldn't call it average defeat though , they crushed me , and my army was no good for anything afterwards.

I don't remember when was the last time i lost on M battles, before this.

[Cybvep]

Yeah, Darth's formations are quite effective - the AI is better at maneuvering and it holds the line with its phalanx troops! However, it still doesn't use its missile units effectively (too much running and charging for me). Generally, with Darth's formations you actually can sometimes lose and it's definitely an improvement over EB Vanilla formations (although they probably aren't finished yet).

[pezhetairoi]

Because the RTW definition of mercenaries and the one being used when the Gaesatae are mentioned are pretty different. In RTW a merc can be hired by absolutely anyone, in the ancient world there were plenty of mercs who were a bit more picky about their employers, the Gaesatae were one of these.

Ah, I see. That really takes the arguments away from me, doesn't it. :) Oh well, enlightenment is good too--never knew they were picky. So you mean they only hired themselves out to Gauls, or only to the Carnutes for example, or...?